


without complexities or pride

by thimble



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 1 Sentence Fiction, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 04:36:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5991871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thimble/pseuds/thimble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>19 - whisper<br/>"I didn't like you," says Oikawa, hushed and slurred, "but I didn't hate you at all."</p><p>(Twenty-five sentences to steady a crown; or, twenty-five reasons to stay.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	without complexities or pride

01 - popcorn

Halfway into the movie, Ushiwaka-chan boldly overlaps their pinky fingers on the armrest, startling him and knocking the bucket from where it was perched on his knee.

 

02 - tawdry

Everything about Oikawa is a performance, but his toss is quiet as he is loud, soundless apart from the smack on the other side of the court after Ushijima hits it, the sting of which he feels in his palms long after the match is over.

 

03 - gondola

"For the record," admonishes Oikawa as he wrings water out of his clothes, "this was your idea" (it was _not_ Ushijima's idea.)

 

04 - rotten

'Ah,' thinks Ushijima as he watches Oikawa retch into the toilet without recoiling, 'this must be love.'

 

05 - furtively

In his phone he has a picture of Ushiwaka-chan after his loss, taken without anyone's notice, and he works hard to convince himself it's just a trophy, nothing more and nothing less.

 

06 - tuba

Belatedly, Oikawa realizes this might have all been a ploy ("if you promise not to laugh, I'll teach you") for an indirect kiss.

 

07 - ice skating

Oikawa holds out his hand, and Ushijima has to draw in a breath when he realizes that neither of them are wearing gloves.

 

08 - typical

He thought it was an elaborate joke, a plot by Ushiwaka-chan to infiltrate his defenses and bring him down; that is, until the 'good morning' texts arrive.

 

09 - unkempt

Oikawa, who looks like he gets a full eight hours of beauty sleep even on days that he doesn't, has dark smudges — not shadows, they're too imperceptible for that, unless one was familiar with the usual coloration of Oikawa's face — under his eyes, and that is how Ushijima knows, before Oikawa opens his mouth, that he's come to say sorry.

 

10 - rumor

He thinks himself a smarter than the average guy, observant, though with a glaring blind spot in the form of one Ushiwaka-chan; this is how he ends up staring down said blind spot's washboard abs in lieu of staring at his eyes, here in the locker rooms of Shiratorizawa Academy, because some asshole from his team baited him with idle gossip ("they say that Ushijima has an eight-pack, that Ushijima is _shredded_.")

 

11 - lookalike

Valentines Day brings with it a confession from a girl with brown hair and dimples in her cheeks, and for a single moment of human weakness, Ushijima imagines himself saying yes.

 

12 - impalement

"Star Trek is far more intellectual," answers Ushijima, too late in noticing the way Oikawa has been eyeing the knife block, ready to pounce if he were to choose the wrong option.

 

13 - mannerism

Oikawa has always smiled at him, wide and reaching his eyes, but the aftermath of their first university win is the first time it has ever been so soft, without a trace of mockery or challenge.

 

14 - vehemently

"I play with him, or not at all," says Ushiwaka-chan after the starting roster is announced without Oikawa's name on the list, and it's not that Oikawa isn't angry or humiliated, because he is; what he isn't is surprised, because Ushiwaka-chan has always been on his side, even when Oikawa wanted him to be anywhere else.

 

15 - bingo

It was a gamble, a game, a way to summon something other than a frown out of those features; he toys with the zipper of the purple jersey jacket, smirking as as its owner walks in and abruptly stops, either marveling at its ill fit or something far less innocent.

 

16 - swimming trunks

He notices two things, right off the bat: 1) that Ushiwaka-chan has a comically methodical way of rubbing sun lotion on himself, and 2) that his trunks are slung an inch lower on his hips than they ought to be, so Oikawa traces the tanline above the hem with his fingertip, rests his chin on a bare shoulder, tutting, "you missed a spot~"

 

17 - charades

He thinks it should be concerning that his impression of Iwaizumi doesn't rile up Oikawa as much as it has him pushing Ushijima to the couch and climbing into his lap, muttering literal filth ("call me Shittykawa again.")

 

18 - barbell

He spots for Ushiwaka-chan because he is a benevolent guy with a surplus of kindness in his heart, and totally not because it gives him a better view.

 

19 - whisper

"I didn't like you," says Oikawa, hushed and slurred, "but I didn't hate you at all."

 

20 - strawberry

He knows the true smell of strawberries, and the aroma advertised on Oikawa's shampoo bottle is nothing like the ripened fruit, plucked right out of the bush; still he inhales the scent in Oikawa's hair and finds that he prefers the lie.

 

21 - hoax

He says it first, as a fact rather than an admission, but when Oikawa says it back Ushijima wears the face of a man who has just been told that the earth isn't flat after all.

 

22 - authenticity

He thrusts the roses at Ushiwaka-chan's chest, more concerned with the flush at his neck than with the thorns, ("I grew them myself") and has half a mind to bury his head in dirt rather than stay and find out if Ushiwaka-chan believes him.

 

23 - plainclothes

"I like this one," whispers Oikawa as he adjusts Ushijima's collar, and in the dressing room mirror Ushijima sees what he looks like when he's being kissed, "the green brings out your eyes."

 

24 - exultation

He fires out what seems like a hundred complaints a day, regarding the state of his hair because of the provincial humidity or the abundance of mosquitoes at bedtime, but he points out constellations visible without light pollution and lights up at the taste of milk bread made with fresh milk, making Ushijima muse that while he has seen Oikawa happy before, it was never from this close, and never because of him.

 

25 - playing possum

"I know you're awake," says the mouth pressed to his forehead, and it's unfair, how Oikawa can't be mad that he's late, can't be anything other than a sad excuse for a romantic, saying, "welcome home."

 

**bonus:**

 

26 - royalty

This is what Oikawa tells him, minutes after it sinks in that they'll be playing on the same team: "there's room for only one king around here, and it's going to be me."

**Author's Note:**

> #10 is a reference to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s74breoNAKc) because I'm a nerd and I'm so sorry.


End file.
